World Cup 2010: Football in the Rainbow NationThe 19th World Cup football (soccer) tournament began on June 11, 2010, in Johannesburg as host country South Africa took on Mexico in the event’s opening contest. The 2010 World Cup marks the first time that the world’s most popular sporting competition will be played on the African continent. In the 2004 Fédération Internationale de Football (FIFA) balloting to determine the 2010 host country, South Africa (which had narrowly lost out to Germany for the right to host the 2006 World Cup) was selected over bids from Morocco, Egypt, and Libya. To mark this momentous event, Britannica is pleased to present a selection of information on the World Cup and South Africa, including a survey of the World Cup field, a tournament schedule, an overview of the World Cup venues, sections on notable football players past and present, a brief history of the World Cup and international football, coverage of the 2006 World Cup, surveys of South Africa’s sporting and artistic cultures, and a timeline of significant events in the country’s history.

The table lists some noteworthy football players who are participating in the 2010 World Cup.

World Cup History

About the World Cup

Formally known as the “FIFA World Cup,” the World Cup is the name of both the quadrennial event itself and the trophy awarded to its winner. The first competition for the cup was organized in 1930 by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and was won by Uruguay, the host country. Held every four years since that time, except during World War II, the competition consists of international sectional tournaments leading to a final elimination event made up of 32 national teams. Unlike Olympic football, World Cup teams are not limited to players of a certain age or amateur status, so the competition serves more nearly as a contest between the world’s best players. Referees are selected from lists that are submitted by all the national associations.

The trophy cup awarded from 1930 to 1970 was the Jules Rimet Trophy, named for the Frenchman who proposed the tournament. This cup was permanently awarded in 1970 to then three-time winner Brazil (1958, 1962, and 1970), and a new trophy called the FIFA World Cup was put up for competition. Many other sports have organized “World Cup” competitions.

World Cup Results

The table provides the results of the World Cup championship games.

The History of International Football Organizations

By the early 20th century, football had spread from Britain across Europe, but it was in need of international organization. A solution was found in 1904, when representatives from the football associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland founded the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

Although Englishman Daniel Woolfall was elected FIFA president in 1906 and all the home nations (England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales) were admitted as members by 1911, British football associations were disdainful of the new body. FIFA members accepted British control over the rules of football via the International Board, which had been established by the home nations in 1882. Nevertheless, in 1920 the British associations resigned their FIFA memberships after failing to persuade other members that Germany, Austria, and Hungary should be expelled following World War I. The British associations rejoined FIFA in 1924 but soon after insisted upon a very rigid definition of amateurism, notably for Olympic football. Other countries again failed to follow their lead, and the British resigned once more in 1928, remaining outside FIFA until 1946. Even after FIFA had established the World Cup championship, British insouciance toward the international game continued. Without membership in FIFA, the British national teams were not invited to the first three competitions (1930, 1934, and 1938). For the next competition, held in 1950, FIFA ruled that the two best finishers in the British home nations tournament would qualify for World Cup play; England won, but Scotland (which finished second) chose not to compete for the World Cup.

Despite sometimes fractious international relations, football continued to rise in popularity. It made its official Olympic debut at the London Games in 1908, and it has since been played in each of the Summer Games (except for the 1932 Games in Los Angeles). FIFA also grew steadily—especially in the latter half of the 20th century, when it strengthened its standing as the game’s global authority and regulator of competition. Guinea became FIFA’s 100th member in 1961; at the turn of the 21st century, more than 200 countries were registered FIFA members—more than the number of countries that belong to the United Nations.

The World Cup finals remain football’s premier tournament, but other important tournaments have emerged under FIFA guidance. Two different tournaments for young players began in 1977 and 1985, and these became, respectively, the World Youth Championship (for those age 20 and younger) and the Under-17 World Championship. Futsal, the world indoor, five-a-side championship, started in 1989, and two years later the first women’s World Cup was played in China. In 1992 FIFA opened the Olympic football tournament to players under age 23, and four years later the first women’s Olympic football tournament was held. The World Club Championship debuted in Brazil in 2000. The Under-19 Women’s World Championship was inaugurated in 2002.

FIFA membership is open to all national associations. They must accept FIFA’s authority, observe the laws of football, and possess a suitable football infrastructure (i.e., facilities and internal organization). FIFA statutes require members to form continental confederations. The first of these, the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (commonly known as CONMEBOL), was founded in South America in 1916. In 1954 the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) were established. Africa’s governing body, the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF), was founded in 1957. The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) followed four years later. The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) appeared in 1966. These confederations may organize their own club, international, and youth tournaments, elect representatives to FIFA’s Executive Committee, and promote football in their specific continents as they see fit. In turn, all football players, agents, leagues, national associations, and confederations must recognize the authority of FIFA’s Arbitration Tribunal for Football, which effectively functions as football’s supreme court in serious disputes.

Until the early 1970s, control of FIFA (and thus of world football) was firmly in the hands of northern Europeans. Under the presidencies of the Englishmen Arthur Drewry (1955–61) and Stanley Rous (1961–74), FIFA adopted a rather conservative, patrician relationship to the national and continental bodies. It survived on modest income from the World Cup finals, and relatively little was done to promote football in less-developed countries or to explore the game’s business potential within the West’s booming economy. FIFA’s leadership was more concerned with matters of regulation, such as confirming amateur status for Olympic competition or banning those associated with illegal transfers of players with existing contracts. For example, Colombia (1951–54) and Australia (1960–63) were suspended temporarily from FIFA after permitting clubs to recruit players who had broken contracts elsewhere in the world.)

Growing African and Asian membership within FIFA undermined European control. In 1974 Brazilian João Havelange was elected president, gaining large support from less-developed countries. Under Havelange, FIFA was transformed from an international gentlemen’s club into a global corporation: billion-dollar television deals and partnerships with major transnational corporations were established during the 1980s and ’90s. While some earnings were reinvested through FIFA development projects—primarily in Asia, Africa, and Central America—the biggest political reward for less-developed countries has been the expansion of the World Cup finals to include more countries from outside Europe and South America.

Greater professionalization of sports also forced FIFA to intercede in new areas as a governing body and competition regulator. The use of performance-enhancing drugs by teams and individual players had been suspected since at least the 1930s. FIFA introduced drug tests in 1966, and occasionally drug users were uncovered, such as Willie Johnston of Scotland at the 1978 World Cup finals. But FIFA regulations were tightened in the 1980s after the sharp rise in offenses among Olympic athletes, the appearance of new drugs such as the steroid nandrolone, and the use of drugs by stars such as Argentina’s Diego Maradona in 1994. While FIFA has authorized lengthy worldwide bans of players who fail drug tests, discrepancies remain between countries and confederations over the intensity of testing and the legal status of specific drugs.

As the sport moved into the 21st century, FIFA came under pressure to respond to some of the major consequences of globalization for international football. Since the election of Switzerland’s Sepp Blatter as president in 1998, the political bargaining and wrangling among world football’s officials have gained greater media exposure and public attention. Direct conflicts of interest among football’s various groups have also arisen: players, agents, television networks, competition sponsors, clubs, national bodies, continental associations, and FIFA all have divergent views regarding the staging of football tournaments and the distribution of football’s income. Regulation of player representatives and transfers is also problematic. In UEFA countries, players move freely when not under contract. On other continents, notably Africa and Central and South America, players tend to be tied into long-term contracts with clubs that can control their entire careers. FIFA now requires all agents to be licensed and to pass written examinations held by national associations, but there is little global consistency regarding the control of agent powers. In Europe, agents have played a key role in promoting wage inflation and higher player mobility. In Latin America, players are often partially “owned” by agents who may decide on whether transfers proceed. In parts of Africa, some European agents have been compared to slave traders in the way that they exercise authoritarian control over players and profit hugely from transfer fees to Western leagues with little thought for their clients’ well-being. In this way, the ever-widening inequalities between developed and less-developed countries are reflected in the uneven growth and variable regulations of world football.

Stars from Past World Cups

From the very first World Cup, the event has featured standout individual performances: at the 1930 World Cup, Guillermo Stábile of Argentina scored an extraordinary eight goals in four matches to become the tournament’s first breakout star. As the World Cup evolved into the single most popular international sporting event, the impact of the tournament’s stars on global sporting culture grew even larger. Most of the all-time football greats made their names on the World Cup stage, including nigh-unbeatable goalkeeper Lev Yashin, “total footballer” Johan Cruyff, the fiery Diego Maradona, and Pelé, probably the greatest player to ever set foot on the pitch.

The following list names a few of the superstars who made an indelible impact on football history through their play in the World Cup.

On July 9, 2006, a crowd of 69,000 spectators at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin and an estimated television audience of one billion association football (soccer) fans watched Italy beat France 5–3 on penalties after the FIFA World Cup final had ended 1–1 in overtime. The latter minutes of the match were marred by a controversial incident. After persistent and personal verbal abuse from the Italian defender Marco Materazzi, French captain Zinedine Zidane, who was playing in the last competitive match of his career, deliberately head-butted his opponent and was sent off with a red card by the referee. Surprisingly, Zidane was awarded the Golden Ball as the best player in the finals. FIFA later imposed fines and suspensions on both Materazzi and Zidane, who agreed to community service in lieu of his three-game suspension.

Ironically, both players had been the game’s only goal scorers. Zidane opened the scoring in the seventh minute with a penalty goal after French midfielder Florent Malouda had fallen from the slightest contact with Materazzi. Zidane chipped in the ball delicately off the crossbar to thwart Gianluigi Buffon in the Italian goal. Italy replied in the 19th minute when Materazzi powered in a headed goal from the corner kick by Andrea Pirlo. While Italy had more possession of the ball in the first half, the experienced French team subsequently gained control of midfield. Both teams were cautious, using just one striker, but whereas France was able to support Thierry Henry, Luca Toni at the point of the Italian attack became an isolated figure. Despite injuries to Patrick Vieira and Henry and Zidane’s dismissal, France appeared the more likely to win, but it was not to be. Fabio Cannavaro, the inspirational Italian captain and centre-back who was appearing in his 100th international, was the standout in defense.

In an undistinguished tournament, FIFA’s crackdown on lunging tackles and simulation (diving) by players brought a record 346 yellow and 28 red cards. There were no major upsets in the group stage, though Ghana qualified at the expense of the Czech Republic and the U.S., and Australia similarly advanced over Croatia. Argentina, effective and fluently attractive, underestimated the Germans in their quarterfinal match, assuming that victory was assured before losing the penalty shoot-out. Argentina did achieve the finest executed goal of the tournament in its 6–0 game against Serbia and Montenegro: nine players, 24 passes, and one goal in 57 seconds.

One of the most disappointing aspects of the tournament was the indifferent form shown by World Cup holder Brazil and, particularly, Brazil’s Ronaldinho, the reigning European and World Footballer of the Year, though teammate Ronaldo registered his 15th career goal in World Cup finals to overtake Gerd Müller of Germany. Brazil shared the Fair Play Award with Spain.

The most entertaining match was the semifinal in which Italy scored twice in overtime to overcome Germany, which finished in third place with its 3–1 defeat of Portugal. Germany also scored the most goals (14) and had the leading marksman in Golden Shoe winner Miroslav Klose with five goals. Goal scoring generally was weak—the average of 2.30 was the second lowest ever, after 1990. Attendance for the matches, however, averaged 52,416, the third best to date.

South Africa in Brief

Introduction

South Africa is the southernmost country on the African continent. It is renowned for its varied topography, great natural beauty, and cultural diversity, all of which have made the country a favoured destination for travellers since the legal ending of apartheid (Afrikaans: “apartness,” or racial separation) in 1994.

South Africa’s remoteness—it lies thousands of miles distant from major African cities such as Lagos and Cairo and more than 6,000 miles (10,000 km) away from most of Europe, North America, and eastern Asia, where its major trading partners are located—helped reinforce the official system of apartheid for a large part of the 20th century. With that system, the government, controlled by the minority white population, enforced segregation between government-defined races in housing, education, and virtually all spheres of life, creating in effect three nations: one of whites (consisting of peoples primarily of British and Dutch [Boer] ancestry, who struggled for generations to gain political supremacy, a struggle that reached its violent apex with the South African War of 1899–1902); one of indigenous black Africans; and one of “Coloureds” (people of mixed ancestry) and ethnic Asians (Indians, Malays, Filipinos, and Chinese). The apartheid regime was disdained and even vehemently opposed by much of the world community, and by the mid-1980s South Africa found itself among the world’s pariah states, the subject of economic and cultural boycotts that affected almost every aspect of life. During this era the South African poet Mongane Wally Serote remarked:

There is an intense need for self-expression among the oppressed in our country. When I say self-expression I don’t mean people saying something about themselves. I mean people making history consciously….We neglect the creativity that has made the people able to survive extreme exploitation and oppression. People have survived extreme racism. It means our people have been creative about their lives.

Eventually forced to confront the untenable nature of ethnic separatism in a multicultural land, the South African government of F.W. de Klerk (1989–94) began to repeal apartheid laws. That process in turn set in motion a transition toward universal suffrage and a true electoral democracy, which culminated in the 1994 election of a government led by the black majority under the leadership of the long-imprisoned dissident Nelson Mandela.

South Africa has three cities that serve as capitals: Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislative), and Bloemfontein (judicial). Johannesburg, the largest urban area in the country and a centre of commerce, lies at the heart of the populous Gauteng province. Durban, a port on the Indian Ocean, is a major industrial centre. Port Elizabeth, which lies along the country’s southern coast, is an important commercial, industrial, and cultural centre.

Today South Africa enjoys a relatively stable mixed economy that draws on its fertile agricultural lands, abundant mineral resources, tourist attractions, and highly evolved intellectual capital. Greater political equality and economic stability, however, do not necessarily mean social tranquility. In the early 21st century, South African society continued to face steep challenges: rising crime rates, ethnic tensions, great disparities in housing and educational opportunities, and the AIDS pandemic.

Blending Western traditions with African and Asian traditions, South Africa is a study in contrasts. It provides lessons in how cultures can sometimes blend, sometimes collide. Culture and the arts, which sometimes were forced into exile during the apartheid era, are now able to flourish in South Africa.

A century and a half of white domination in most of the country (more than three centuries in the Western Cape) and the great extent of its ties to the global market economy have profoundly transformed black culture in South Africa. The strongest links to traditional societies have been through the many languages embodying the country’s cultural diversity, whose nuances of idiom and sensibility carry over into the arts. Traditional art forms such as dancing and textile weaving are used as vehicles of ethnic identity and are carefully preserved, while modern art forms from painting to literature have flourished in the years since the end of apartheid. Still, much of this has taken place through private initiatives because major institutional support for culture has been largely abandoned, especially for cultural projects perceived as elitist or European in orientation.

Art

Rock and cave art attributable to the San, some of which is thought to be about 26,000 years old, has been found across much of Southern Africa. The greatest number of paintings, which primarily depict human figures and such animals as elands, elephants, cattle, and horses, have been found in the Drakensberg mountains (part of uKhahlamba/Drakensberg Park, designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000). Dated to 500 CE are the terra-cotta figures known as Lydenburg heads, named after the town in which they were discovered. Excavations at Bambandyanalo and Mapungubwe in the Limpopo River valley have found gold animal statues as well as a wealth of pottery and clay animal figurines. More recently, Zulu wooden statues, produced in the 19th century before the Anglo-Zulu War (1879), are further examples of South Africa’s artistic history. Visual artists continue to create in traditional forms, but many contemporary artists—including Jane Alexander, Helen Sebidi, Willie Bester, and Bongiwe Dhlomo—employ Western techniques as well.

Music

South African music is a fusion of various musical styles such as traditional indigenous music, jazz, Christian religious music, and forms of popular music from the United States. These combinations are evident in the music of such performers as the African Jazz Pioneers, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, and others. During the apartheid period, black and white musicians were segregated, although they still collaborated on occasion; a notable example is Johnny Clegg, a white South African who learned traditional Zulu music and formed the mixed-race bands Juluka and Savuka, both of which gained international followings. Township music, a lively form of music that flourished in the townships during the apartheid era, has also been popular within the country and abroad.

Literature

South African literature proved to be an important expression of resistance against apartheid throughout the 20th century. One of its best-known works is Alan Paton’s novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948), which drew world attention to the separatist system. Two decades later, literary resistance organized around journals and magazines, whose contributors were collectively known as the Sestigers (“Sixtyers,” writers of the 1960s). Reacting against the National Party’s increasingly authoritarian policies, the Sestigers grew in influence but soon divided into factions insisting on the need for violent revolution on the one hand and art for art’s sake on the other. In the 1970s many books continued to criticize the apartheid regime, including André Brink’s Kennis van die aand (1973; Looking on Darkness), Nadine Gordimer’s Burger’s Daughter (1979), and Breyten Breytenbach’s In Africa Even the Flies Are Happy (1977). Also during this time, the government enacted the Publications Act of 1974, which expanded and strengthened existing censorship policies. Many authors went into exile; some did not return until the 1990s, while others remained abroad even after the end of apartheid. Brink, however, remained in South Africa and wrote, in Writing in a State of Siege (1983), about how unsuccessful the National Party had been in silencing South African writers:

For a very long time three different streams of literature ran their course: black, Afrikaans, and English. But during the last few years a new awareness of common identity as writers has arisen, creating a new sense of solidarity in a body of informed and articulate resistance to oppression.

Black literature

South Africa’s various black cultures have rich oral traditions, including narrative, poetic, historical, and epic forms, which have changed and adapted as black life has changed. While there is a fear that classical forms of the oral traditions are at risk of being lost with the spread of literacy and recorded music, these oral traditions have exerted a major influence on the written literatures of South Africa, merging with literary influences from elsewhere in Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas, and Europe.

Such writers as Oliver Kgadime Matsepe (North Sotho), Thomas Mofolo (South Sotho), Guybon Sinxo (Xhosa), and B.W. Vilakazi (Zulu) have been more deeply influenced in their written work by the oral traditions of their cultures than by European forms. Other black writers, beginning in the 1930s with Solomon Plaatje and his historical novel Mhudi (1930), have explicitly used black oral history when writing in English. As literacy spread, a commercial press developed, primarily in English, that was aimed at a black audience and shaped new generations of writers. Notable were the contributors to the journal Drum, including Nat Nakasa, Can Themba, Bloke Modisane, and Lewis Nkosi, who vividly captured the rhythms of urban township life and the milieu of rising black ambitions for freedom. Government crackdowns in the 1960s crushed much of that spirit and forced Dennis Brutus, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Mazisi Kunene, and other writers into exile.

Afrikaans literature

The second stream, literature written in Afrikaans, has its origins in the culture and arts of the early Afrikaner nationalist movement. Beginning in the 1880s, the movement laid the foundation for the political nationalism that coalesced following British conquest and contributed to the ideology of apartheid. In the 1920s—through the secret organization called the Afrikaner-Broederbond and through cultural organizations—teachers, academics, Dutch Reformed Church ministers, writers, artists, and journalists began to develop a powerful, if also authoritarian, vision of an exclusive, divinely ordained national “racial” identity. That vision, promoted in literature, drama, music, and public commemorative sculpture and other forms of expression, became apartheid’s official culture, asserting the paradoxical proposition that the other, non-Afrikaner cultures should develop along their own lines, in a manner prescribed by the state.

Writers of Afrikaans literature later explored more-universal themes—such as love, conflict, nature, and daily life—and, eventually, even opposition to apartheid. The first two decades of the 20th century were dominated by such poets as Jakob Daniel du Toit and C. Louis Leipoldt. The appearance of the Dertigers (“Thirtyers,” poets of the 1930s), a group of talented poets including W.E.G. Louw, signified the new standard in Afrikaans literature. Prominent among the Sestigers, who followed decades later, were the novelists Etienne Leroux and Brink and the poet Breytenbach. Post-Sestigers writers of note include the poets Wilma Stockenström, Sheila Cussons, and Antjie Krog and the novelists Elsa Joubert, Karel Schoeman, and Etienne van Heerden.

Anglophone literature

The third stream, Anglophone literature, arose in the late 19th and the early 20th century with writers such as Olive Schreiner, an early feminist who is credited with writing the first great South African novel, The Story of an African Farm (1883), and Herman Charles Bosman, whose short stories chronicled the foibles of life on the veld. After World War II Paton, Gordimer (who later was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize for Literature), and others produced what might be called a literature of the liberal conscience, combining sharp and critical social observation with meditation on the responsibilities and fates of individuals enmeshed in oppressive situations they lack the power to change.

Multicultural literature

During the 1970s there emerged in the arts powerful themes of national and multiracial, multilingual cultural patterns as writers and artists from all backgrounds concentrated on exploring and portraying the turmoil affecting South African society. Reaction to apartheid engendered a sense of black culture and history that drew inspiration from West and North African, Caribbean, and African American intellectual movements. The themes of black consciousness evident in the poetry and prose of urban writers such as Mothobi Mutloatse, Miriam Tlali, Mbulelo Mzamane, and Njabulo Ndebele and published in such periodicals as Staffrider were derived from the literary and oral traditions of black languages in South Africa and in literature by blacks in European languages.

For many decades, works with strong political themes or explicit sexuality were banned. Authors such as Breytenbach, Brink, Leroux, and Dan Roodt, whose works were banned, began exploring the cultural ground on which Afrikaners would need to make their way in a reconstructed and democratic South Africa.

The authors Adam Small and Alex La Guma wrote vividly in Afrikaans and English, respectively, of the effects of racial discrimination and of the complex and frequently violent nature of life in South Africa. Many black and white writers addressing these and other themes have received international recognition. Writers such as J.M. Coetzee (awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature), Sipho Sepamla, and Mongane Wally Serote joined such established figures as Mphahlele, Paton, Brink, and Leroux in bringing South African literary life to the wider world.

Theatre

South African playwrights responded to the new cultural and political milieu with such innovations as multilingual plays. Support for the newer indigenous theatre came from independent and nonracial theatrical organizations, such as the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. Plays by Athol Fugard, Mbongeni Ngema, Fatima Dike, Zakes Mda, and Pieter-Dirk Uys have been performed worldwide.

Film

Since the 1890s, when the medium was first introduced, film has been an important means of cultural expression for South African artists. The country’s first major narrative film, The Kimberley Diamond Robbery, appeared in 1910. It was followed through the 1910s and ’20s by several epics that rivaled the Hollywood productions of Cecil B. DeMille, notably I.W. Schlesinger’s Symbol of Sacrifice (1918), which employed 25,000 Zulu warriors as extras to depict the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879.

As is the case with other arts, film has also been used as a means of political commentary, despite official censorship in the apartheid era. In the 1970s director Ross Devenish brought Fugard’s highly political play Boesman and Lena (1973) to the screen, and Soweto-based playwright and filmmaker Gibson Kente directed How Long (Must We Suffer…)? (1976), the first major South African film made by a black artist. A Dry White Season (1989), based on a novel by Brink, used a largely American cast to bring the harsh reality of apartheid to an international audience. Other films that reached a wider audience include Afrikaner director Jamie Uys’s The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980), Oliver Schmitz and Thomas Mogotlane’s Mapantsula (1988), Manie van Rensburg’s Taxi to Soweto (1991), Anant Singh and Darrell Roodt’s Sarafina! (1992), and Gavin Hood’s Tsotsi (2005), based on a novel by Fugard.

Sports and Recreation

South Africans avidly participate in sports and outdoor recreational activities. The country’s national parks provide opportunities not only to view wildlife but also to pursue activities such as rock climbing and hiking. As with most other aspects of South African life, however, sports and recreational activities developed differently for whites and blacks. Whites played football (soccer), rugby, and cricket and enjoyed sports in world-class facilities, while blacks were restricted to such sports as football, boxing, and, secondarily, athletics (track and field); moreover, their facilities were poorly maintained and ill-equipped.

White South African athletes collected more than 50 Olympic medals from 1908 to 1960, but the country was suspended from the Olympic Games in 1964–92 because of its apartheid policies. During the transition from apartheid to democracy (1990–94), South Africa was readmitted to the Olympics, and a small, racially mixed Olympic team competed in the 1992 Summer Games. At the 1996 Summer Games, swimmer Penelope Heyns became the first South African Olympic gold medallist in the postapartheid era, and marathon runner Josia Thugwane earned the distinction of becoming the first black South African to claim a gold medal.

Other postapartheid sports teams have also done well. South Africa’s rugby team, the Springboks, won the Rugby World Cup in 1995 and in 2007. The 1995 victory was particularly poignant, as the country’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, and the captain of the predominantly white rugby team, François Pienaar, used the tournament as an opportunity to build support for the team among South Africans of all colours, providing them with a common goal to rally around as a step toward healing the racial divisions left by apartheid. When South Africa’s national football team, affectionately nicknamed Bafana Bafana (Zulu for “The Boys”), returned to international competition, it won the 1996 African Cup of Nations at home, was runner-up to Egypt at the same competition in 1998, and qualified for its first World Cup finals in 1998. South Africa is hosting the 2010 World Cup, the first time that an African country has been selected to do so.

From Apartheid to Rainbow Nation: Key Historical Events in South Africa since 1910

South Africa is often referred to as the “rainbow nation,” as its population is a mosaic of many different ethnic groups. Despite this multicultural nature, for most of the 20th century South Africa was ruled by the country’s white minority, and its transformation to the nonracial democracy that exists today was long and arduous. Although legislated apartheid has ended, many of the entrenched social and economic effects of decades of inequality still remain in the 21st century. For greater detail, see South Africa: History.

1910The Union of South Africa comes into existence as a dominion within the British Commonwealth on May 31. It is formed by four former colonies under the South Africa Act of 1909, which put political power in the new country in the hands of an all-white union bicameral Parliament, effectively disenfranchising the nonwhite majority; the South Africa Act is unequivocally condemned by black South Africans.1912The South African Native National Congress is formed. The organization will be renamed the African National Congress (ANC) in 1923.1913The Natives Land Act prohibits black South Africans from buying or renting land outside of specially designated reserves, which make up less than one-tenth of the country.1923The Native (Urban Areas) Act segregates urban residential space and creates “influx controls” to reduce access to cities by black South Africans. 1948The National Party comes to power in South Africa. Racially discriminatory practices, in place from the formation of the country and expanded over the decades, are further broadened and solidified under the party’s policy of apartheid, which sanctions racial segregation and political and economic discrimination against nonwhites. The party will rule South Africa for more than 40 years.1952ANC leaders Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo establish South Africa’s first black law practice, specializing in cases resulting from the post-1948 apartheid legislation. Mandela plays an important role in launching a campaign of defiance against South Africa’s pass laws, which require nonwhites to carry documents (known as passes, pass books, or reference books) authorizing their presence in areas that the government deemed “restricted” (i.e., generally reserved for the white population).1959The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) is created by former ANC members who want to advocate solely for the rights of black South Africans, in contrast to the nonracial or multiracial policies of the ANC and other organizations. The 1959 Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act relabels areas previously set aside for black South Africans as “homelands,” or Bantustans, in which only specific ethnic groups have residence rights. Later, the Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act of 1970 will define blacks living throughout South Africa as legal citizens of the homelands designated for their particular ethnic groups—thereby stripping them of their South African citizenship and their few remaining civil and political rights. Between the 1960s and 1980s the white-dominated South African government will continuously remove black people still living in “white areas” and forcibly relocate them to the Bantustans.1960During an anti-pass-law demonstration sponsored by the PAC, South African police open fire on a crowd at Sharpeville, a black township near Johannesburg, on March 21. About 69 black South Africans are killed and more than 180 are wounded, some 50 women and children among the victims. A state of emergency is later declared in South Africa and more than 11,000 people are detained. The PAC and ANC are outlawed on April 8.1961Denied legal avenues for political change, the ANC forms a military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), with Mandela as its head, to carry out acts of sabotage in South Africa as part of its campaign against apartheid. In the face of increasing criticism of its apartheid policy, the country withdraws from the Commonwealth, and the Republic of South Africa is proclaimed. Helen Suzman, a white South African legislator of the aggressively antiapartheid Progressive Party, is the only member of her party reelected to Parliament. From 1961 to 1974 she is the sole antiapartheid member of Parliament. ANC president Albert Luthuli is named the recipient of the 1960 Nobel Prize for Peace, in recognition of his nonviolent struggle against racial discrimination. He is the first African to be awarded the prize.1962The South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC) is formed and will lead efforts to establish an international boycott of South African sports. It will later establish itself in exile in London. FIFA suspends South Africa from international football competition; the suspension will be lifted in 1963.1964Mandela, on trial for sabotage, treason, and violent conspiracy, is sentenced to life imprisonment on June 12. He spends the first 18 years of his sentence at the infamous Robben Island Prison. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) withdraws South Africa’s invitation to participate in the Tokyo Olympic Games because of South Africa’s apartheid policies. FIFA again suspends South Africa from international football competition.1968More than 50 countries protest South Africa’s proposed inclusion in the Mexico City Olympics, and the IOC withdraws South Africa’s invitation to participate in the Games.1970The IOC expels South Africa from Olympic competition.1972The Black People’s Convention, an umbrella organization of black consciousness groups, is established. Steve Biko is one of the founders.1973The United Nations General Assembly denounces apartheid.1976On June 16 the South African police open fire on thousands of black schoolchildren protesting an education policy in Soweto, an African township outside Johannesburg. A nationwide cycle of protest and brutal repression ensues over the next year. FIFA expels South Africa from international football competition.1977Biko dies from injuries suffered while in police custody. He becomes an internationally known martyr for South African black nationalism. The United Nations Security Council votes unanimously to impose a mandatory embargo on the export of arms to South Africa.1978P.W. Botha becomes prime minister. To appease foreign and domestic critics, his government introduces some reforms, including the repeal of the pass laws. However, the reforms stop short of making any real change in the distribution of power.1982South African clergyman Allan Boesak persuades members of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches to declare apartheid a heresy and to suspend membership of the white South African churches. The next year he will help organize the United Democratic Front, a multiracial association of all manner of groups opposed to apartheid.1983A new constitution is promulgated that creates separate parliamentary bodies for Asians (primarily Indians) and for Coloureds, two of the country’s legally designated racial groups, but it also vests great powers in an executive president. Botha will be elected to this position the next year.1984Bishop Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his opposition to apartheid.1986American public resentment of South Africa’s racial policies is strong enough for the U.S. Congress to pass—over a presidential veto—the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, which bans new South African investments and loans, ends air links with the country, and prohibits the importation of many of its commodities. Other governments take similar actions.1989F.W. de Klerk succeeds Botha as president. He commits himself to speeding up the reform process begun by his predecessor and initiates talks about a new postapartheid constitution with representatives of the country’s four legally designated racial groups (white, black, Coloured, and Asian [primarily Indian]).1990The South African government, led by de Klerk, releases Mandela from prison on February 11 and legalizes the ANC and other opposition parties.1991Mandela is named president of the ANC; he negotiates with de Klerk to end apartheid and bring about a peaceful transition to nonracial democracy in South Africa. The IOC agrees to readmit South Africa to Olympic competition.1992South Africa sends a racially mixed team to the Barcelona Olympic Games. FIFA readmits South Africa to international football competition.1993Mandela and de Klerk are jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for their efforts to establish nonracial democracy in South Africa. A new nonracial interim constitution is adopted and will take effect in 1994.1994South Africa’s first elections by universal suffrage are held in April. The Mandela-led ANC is victorious, and Mandela is sworn in as president of the country’s first multiethnic government on May 10. 1995Mandela establishes the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), with Archbishop Tutu as the commission’s chair, to investigate and possibly grant amnesty for human rights violations committed during the apartheid era. The TRC will release the first five volumes of its final report on Oct. 29, 1998, and the remaining two volumes on March 21, 2003. In all, the commission will have received more than 7,000 amnesty applications, held more than 2,500 amnesty hearings, and granted 1,500 amnesties. South Africa’s rugby team, the Springboks, wins the Rugby World Cup.1996At the Atlanta Olympic Games, swimmer Penelope Heyns becomes the first South African Olympic gold medallist in the postapartheid era, and marathon runner Josia Thugwane earns the distinction of becoming the first black South African to claim a gold medal. South Africa’s national football team, Bafana Bafana (Zulu for “The Boys”), wins the African Cup of Nations tournament. A new South African constitution that enshrines the principles of human dignity, nonracialism and nonsexism, and the equality and advancement of human rights and freedoms is signed by Mandela on December 10; it will take effect in early 1997.1999The ANC is again victorious in general elections; Thabo Mbeki, who replaced Mandela as president of the ANC in December 1997, becomes president of the country. He will begin a second term in 2004.2007The Springboks win the Rugby World Cup.2008Accused of interfering in a corruption case against Jacob Zuma, one of his rivals within the ANC, Mbeki resigns from the country’s presidency in September. He is succeeded by Kgalema Motlanthe. 2009Zuma becomes president of South Africa after the ANC wins general elections.2010South Africa hosts the 19th World Cup football tournament. It is the first time that the competition will take place on the African continent.